NOV 20, 2009
By Clark L. Springs, MD
Cornea/External Disease, Refractive Mgmt/Intervention
Researchers took central endothelial photographs of 26 eyes before and nine years after LASIK or PRK (without MMC). They found no significant difference in cell loss or morphology compared to 42 control eyes that had not undergone either procedure.
Interestingly there was an improvement in endothelial morphology in patients who underwent PRK, presumably due to the cessation of contact lens wear. They also found no relationship between endothelial cell loss and ablation depth or residual bed thickness.
They conclude that their data support the current eye bank policy of utilizing corneas that have undergone LASIK or PRK for posterior lamellar keratoplasty. Whether eye banks should accept corneas that have undergone PRK with mitomycin-C; however, remains unknown.